


At long last

by Eriathalia



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Anal Sex, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Getting Together, Love Confessions, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:27:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22475617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eriathalia/pseuds/Eriathalia
Summary: It takes Crowley an apocalypse that wasn't and some good amount of alcohol to blurt out what he felt about the angel.It takes Aziraphale just as long to acknowledge what he always knew.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 86
Collections: Good Omens Holiday Swap 2019





	At long last

**Author's Note:**

  * For [argentconflagration](https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentconflagration/gifts).



> This was written for the Good Omens Holiday Swap 2019.  
> It's my gift for @argentconflagration.
> 
> This fanfic replaces another one which I rather screwed up on. My deepest apologies to the recipient. There were no bad intentions involved.

It wasn't that Crowley did not know what the quickening of his heart whenever the angel smiled at him meant. No, he just hated to be the one making the first move.

Opening his mouth once too often had landed him in cold damp places before, and a deep fall it was indeed, so he had no desire to take chances ever again.

Yes, it caused him a whole lot of heartache, but that was still better than being rejected altogether. 

The angel was, at the end of the day, a being of habit.

The demon knew too well that Aziraphale loved his routines. Making advances after all these years would be a futile attempt. He had once tried and been rebuffed immediately.

"You go too fast for me Crowley." Even after almost 5 decades the words still rang in his ears like a curse.

Too fast?! 6000 years of pining and saving the other's hide and utter devotion on the brink of being discovered and the angel still refused to see that they were meant to be!

How often had Crowley sworn to himself to stop the long-winded courtship? He must have lost count, though it hardly mattered for each time the angel looked at him with those bright blue eyes, his resolve crumbled anew.

The question was: did the angel not know or did he simply not want to see it? But then, Aziraphale was smart, if not smarter than the average person, at least for his millennia of experience. He should have figured it out, shouldn't he?

This however brought up a new question: why would he not admit it? Or was it that Crowley mistook their far too close interactions for something that was never there?

He groaned and ran a hand through his already unruly hair. 

"What is it, dear boy?" 

The soft spoken words caused the demon to snap out of his thoughts at once.

Blinking in confusion, he took in his surroundings, the warm light and piles upon piles of old books. 

The bookshop, right. It was their first evening after not only stopping the apocalypse but also outsmarting their respective head offices (with some help from a certain witch, but who cared about details), and they had mutually come to the conclusion that this event was to be celebrated with copious amounts of alcohol. This in and of itself had not been anything out of the ordinary, for they both liked their wine and whiskey and whatnot to pass the time, but the occasion had made the demon more light headed than usual.

"Angggeeellll" He slurred, almost dropping his empty glass in the attempt to sit up straight.

"Whyyyyy angggeellll?" It was followed by a burp that immediately made him duck his head in embarrassment. Not that it was a good idea as his world started spinning, the pounding in his head becoming more prominent.

"Why what, dear?" Aziraphale discarded the reading glasses that had been perched upon the bridge of his nose till that moment and rubbed his eyes.

"Whyyy…" Crowley took a deep breath. He should have stopped right then but the words just kept tumbling from his lips.

"Whyyy don' you see I love you?" 

There. It had been said and time seemed to stand still without him doing anything to influence it. Or was it his doing? He couldn't recall. And why was everything so blurry?

"Crowley," The angel replied, his voice firm and void of emotion. "I think it is time you sobered up."

He reached out and took the glass from the demon's hand, lest he crushed it in his palm. Blood was such a nasty stain to remove from a fine carpet and the angel hated to see his friend hurt anyway. 

"I am fffinnnne, aaangeelllll!" Crowley protested, but the other merely shook his head. 

" _ Sober. Up _ ." he repeated, shooting the other a stern glance.

"Alright. Fine." The demon pouted for a moment then closed his eyes and concentrated on banishing the liquor from his system.

It left a bitter taste on his tongue, though not as bitter as the words that had unwittingly been spoken mere moments ago.

It took him a moment to focus after he re-opened his eyes, though the blank expression on the angel's face made him wish he had never opened them at all.

His shoulders slumped. This was it then, the moment of truth that would tell him if his assumption that the angel liked him back at least a little would be proven oh so wrong.

"I guess I should leave?”he offered quietly.

Aziraphale shook his head.

"You better not run away now" he replied, face still not betraying any sort of emotion.

"Then what?! Am I to stay and be humiliated now?" Crowley jumped to his feet, regretting it instantaneously as the remains of the alcohol in his system punished the sudden movement with an onslaught of vertigo. 

"Sit" the angel commanded and there was a bit of the principality and guardian of old in his tone he so often tended to forget about.

The demon obeyed without a second thought.

"You are aware" Aziraphale went on "that it is not that easy, aren’t you?" he leaned forward in his armchair, clasping his hands together.

"Easy you say?" Crowley huffed. "No. No angel. Easy is not, never has been, a thing applying to either of us, has it now?" There was a certain amount of venom in his words, but the demon couldn't have cared less. If he were going down, he would not do it without a fight.

"Though I assume that's what you had hoped for?" he raised an eyebrow provocatively.

"What are you talking about?" Aziraphale gasped, his blank mask slipping.

"This." Crowley pointed between the two of them. "Us. Our relationship. Our history-"

"Is what it is and I would not want to change a thing," the angel finished. "Do you think you are worthless to me?"

"A pawn possibly," Crowley spat, blind rage taking over. "You must have known! It was so obvious! And you didn't care!"

"I did! I do Crowley." The angel’s expression had turned into one of deep sadness. "Do you really think so little of me? Tell me."

"Little?" The demon shook his head with some vehemence. "You were my world, Aziraphale! Still are! Haven't I shown you often enough? What about France? I saved you from having your head cut off. I walked into a church and burned my feet on consecrated ground to keep you from being blasted into nothingness. Or that one time I saved you from that Spartan's wrath way back when? Or that time I made people like that dreadfully dull Hamlet play you so loved? Was it not enough? What more did you want angel?! What about all the times I took you out to lunch, found the best places to enjoy the most exquisite treats. Just because I know you love good food? Has it not been enough to prove my devotion at all? An arrangement?! This was so much more than an arrangement!"

"It was." Aziraphale sighed. "It was all I ever could have hoped for and then so much more."

"You don't say!" Crowley spat and fixed his eyes on a shelf to his side, face contorted in dismay. "And yet you pretended it was a burden. I made a step towards you and you pushed me two steps back. I took one step back and you lured me in. A cruel game, wouldn't you say? Even more so since you knew."

"I knew and I did my best to keep you safe."

The words were spoken quietly with both regret and an unspeakable tenderness. They burned. They burned deep down in the demon's soul. In that moment he felt like the true fool who had been to blind to see. He probably was.

"They were watching us. Not always, not too closely, but one misplaced step...I showed my devotion to you by not giving them a chance to find out."

"What?" Crowley's eyes widened as he turned back to face the other.

"I showed you by keeping you safe." The angel repeated.

"I heard that. I'm not deaf." The demon grumbled, though it was obvious there was no bite in his words "Did you just say that-"

"I love you as well? Yes. Oh don't make such a face." Aziraphale couldn't help but chuckle as Crowley's kept on staring, mouth wide open as if he had been shocked by the revelation despite being the one who had accused the angel of ignoring the knowledge of his own love for millennia. 

"Crowley?" The angel waved a hand in front of his friend’s eyes. It was almost comical, right out of one of those popular TV comedies he usually despised for being too much on the shallow side. 

"Ngk" The demon squeaked and finally shut his mouth. "I am an idiot. Am I? I must be. Oh good lo- sat- someone!"

"Now now, dear boy. I think you are being a little dramatic. Calm dow- mmpfff!"

The angel was cut off by surprisingly soft lips being pressed against his own. Not that he minded finding himself with a lapful of lanky demon. The lord knew he had often admired the other's lean physique, even imagined how it would feel to peel away the layers of expensive designer clothing (or whatever the fashion was at the time). Well, in that specific case he hoped that SHE actually wasn't aware. How utterly un-angelic of him. But he was a being of love, wasn't he and oh, he must have drifted off into his not so innocent thought for longer than he had expected, for when he shifted his focus back to reality, he found wide golden eyes staring at him.

"Ah...forgive me dear boy." He quickly wrapped his arms around the other, effectively preventing him from pulling away.

"You caught me off guard there."

"That bad?" Crowley asked, biting his lip nervously. 

"Bad? Oh nono. On the contrary. You've sent my thoughts" the angel twirled a strand of red hair around his forefinger. "Quite astray. But maybe we could try again?"

"Yessss?" The demon hissed despite his best efforts and leaned back in for another kiss, this one deeper and more heated than their first one, if only for the reason that both of them were more than aware of what they had finally accomplished.

"Your lips taste like pie." Crowley remarked, as once more they parted.

"Ah, must have been the pastry from that new bakery I tried earlier." The angel batted his eyelashes, a light pink coloring his cheeks.

"A new bakery?"

"Oh..yeah..opened just around the corner. Ha! Adam!" They both broke into a fit of laughter.

"Seems like you  _ are  _ just that easy to read after all angel."

The words gained Crowley a good pinch in his side.

"Ow! What was that for!"

Aziraphale grinned. "Being cheeky?" 

"Cheeky you say, huh? I can show you cheeky."

"That a challenge?" The angel asked, his grin widening.

"Do you think it is?" Crowley replied with a grin of his own, yellow eyes glowing with elation.

"Challenge accepted," Aziraphale muttered before diving in for yet another kiss, nipping the demon's bottom lip as his hips bucked up, emphasizing his statement with some rather obvious effort in his nether regions.

Crowley gasped. "Is that where your mind went earlier?"

"I said no such thing!" The angel protested, but his reddening face betrayed the truth. 

"Haven't you?" With nimble nimble fingers the demon untied the angel's bowtie, letting it fall to the ground, then turned his attention to the top buttons of the other's shirt.

"May I?" He asked, fiddling with the top button, not yet undoing it.

"Too slow." Aziraphale groaned and vanished their clothing with a snap of his fingers. They shivered as the chilly air hit their bare skin.

Crowley pressed closer against him, seeking his warmth as his cold blooded nature protested the sudden change in temperature. 

"Oh dear, I forgot...here, let me…" The angel flicked his hand again, changing the temperature of the room to a comfortable warmth. "There you go. This should be better."

Crowley nodded. "Ssssooo…" he mumbled "This is going to happen then?"

"If you want it to?" The angel answered.

"Do you doubt it?"

"No. I've know for so long. It just wasn't the right time then."

"And now it is?" Even though the phrasing seemed accusatory the demon sounded hopeful.

"We are free. At least it doesn't matter if anyone found out any longer. It doesn't change a thing."

Crowley gritted his teeth, opening his mouth to shoot back a hurry reply, but was cut off before he could utter a sound.

"To them. I mean to them. It does make a life changing difference to me," Aziraphale quickly amended. 

"Oh...so you do..?"

"Yes. Yes I want to- ah!" Crowley squirmed as the angel's hands squeezed his bottom.

"How, my darling. How do you want me?" Aziraphale whispered into the other's ear, breath tingling the already heated skin.

"I want you...inside me...love me angel."

"As you wish." With a strength that an outsider would not have expected from the sturdy man, he picked the other up, carrying him towards the settee which had, by some miracle, doubled in size and grown quite a few fluffy pillows. 

When Aziraphale climbed atop the other, he made certain not to leave an inch of skin unexplored by his lips, until the other was almost begging for release. When the angel finally entered him, he set a slow but steady pace, allowing the other to cling to him as if for dear life. It did not take them long to reach their peak, each having the other’s name on their lips. Spent, they curled up against each other, the angel allowing his beloved to rest his head upon his chest.

Even though he did not need his heart to beat, he allowed it, lulling Crowley to sleep with its steady rhythm.

The angel did not close his eyes that night, but instead watched the slow rise and fall of Crowley's chest, marveling at how young and soft his features became as if all worries had been taken off his shoulders at last.

And maybe they had been, allowing the angel a glimpse of the splendid being the other once had been. Well, he mused, some things might have shifted, but he had always known the beauty of Crowley, though his feathers had turned a jet black. He liked to think that the other was not truly fully an angel or demon but instead something unique that no other being would ever be able to compare to. And he would make certain that from now on he would have no more need to ask for the affection he was so clearly due.

When the sun rose above the horizon the next morning, bathing them in soft golden light, the angel smiled down at his demon as he blinked sleep from his eyes and they both knew that things had changed for the better between them.


End file.
